The 2010 Toyota Prius (pictured here) and the 2010 Honda Insight are proving to be sales hits in the U.S. and Japan, giving their companies a boost and driving away from less efficient competitors.

The Toyota Prius begins to show its sales potential

While the auto industry as a whole has struggled, Honda and Toyota have been experiencing new international success, thanks to their new 2010 Insight and Prius hybrid vehicles. With a healthy profit margin of $3,100 per vehicle, these lean, clean, green small cars are selling out and acting as a bailout for their respective companies, while other models and competitors languish.

In Japan, Honda's Insight already became the first hybrid vehicle to top overall sales charts. Now Toyota's Prius has a success story of its own on its hands.

Earlier this year Toyota, battered by the economic downturn had to stop production and assembly at many of its plants in an effort to reduce output and lower inventories. However, thanks to the better than expected demand for the Prius, thanks in part to rising summer gas prices, Toyota is putting these plants back in full-time action.

States Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco, "We are considering steps to increase production to meet demand."

Both in Japan and in many states in the U.S., consumers get tax breaks for purchasing fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles, making them a smart buy when coupled with higher gas prices. Additional tax break measures which should sweeten the deal even more are on the books in both Japan and the U.S.

Reportedly, Toyota initially planned to internationally produce 42,000 to 43,000 vehicles per month, but has since raised its plans to 50,000 vehicles per month. Toyota says it has received at least 80,000 orders for the third-generation Prius, but declined to comment on reports that orders have since soared to 110,000 units. It is obvious, though, that in this bleak auto economy these well-designed hybrids are a rare bright spot.

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You are way out there on your figures. 50K is more like yearly sales volumes and not monthly. My automotive analyst is getting the 2009 US Light Vehicle sales volumes for Q1 2009, I will post them as soon as I get them along with the 2009 SAAR.

Why because Toyota just doesn't make the type of car Americans want to buy. And what vehicle is that, well from these figures I would say it's a pick-up truck, and no, not a Toyota pickup truck either. Oh, and Ford makes between $8K-$12K profit from every F150 sold. Same goes for Chevy and Chrysler on their trucks. It's not that people don't want to buy them, its that people are not willing to buy high ticket items in these uncertain times.

Now if you ran a company, and was looking at these sales figures, what type of vehicle would you build and market to the public? One that will sell 50K units per year, at $3.1K per vehicle profit or one that sells 500K at $8K to $12K per vehicle profit? That is why Toyota was trying so hard at making a real full size pickup for the past 4 years.I am not sure what finance school Obama and Pelosi attended, but their plan for the US auto industry will crash and burn if they force Americans to stop buying pickup trucks (once again based on these sales figures).

Prius for month of Apr 8,385 YTD 21,757, down from 64,664 this time last year.

Ok, I lied, I am not sorting through the data, but keep in mind the figures already posted for top 10 are accurate.

I'll retract my 50K sounds more like yearly, and give it a global sales volume. However, the current Prius plant in Japan is at max capacity, with 15,000 vehicles coming to US per month. The new plant in MS is on hold.

quote: Why because Toyota just doesn't make the type of car Americans want to buy. And what vehicle is that, well from these figures I would say it's a pick-up truck, and no, not a Toyota pickup truck either. Oh, and Ford makes between $8K-$12K profit from every F150 sold. Same goes for Chevy and Chrysler on their trucks. It's not that people don't want to buy them, its that people are not willing to buy high ticket items in these uncertain times.

I don't get the whole Americans don't want the type of car that Toyota Sells. First off, Trunks are number once in sales because a lot of them are for WORK, think all the small businesses and do it yourselvers who uses a pick up truck. American Trucks have always been well received and thus have always been the top selling vehicles.

Now, other than that, The Toyota Camry has been the number one Auto (non truck) in the US for a decade now. Ever since it passed the Ford Taurus. As last years numbers showed, the Camry was again the top selling non truck. And Toyota has the number 3 overal, the number 5 overall and the number 10 overall vehicle. Japanese companies again has 6 of the top 10 list. Again, if you take away Trucks, which Americans rule, The Japanese companies own 6 of the top 7 vehicles with only the Chevy Impala making an appearance.

Again, with the early 2009 sales, it looks like Trucks may be taken over by an auto this year, and again, it is Toyota camry with the accord close buy, and corrola, civic, and altima also having strong showings. Since trucks and gas guzzelers are on the way out, the Chevy Malibu is also making a showing, but clearly Toyota has the type of cars Americans want. They make the top Auto, they make the top Hybrid, They make the top selling Luxury Vehicle sedan in the US, and they make the top selling Luxury SUV in the RX in the US as well Not bad for Toyota.